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George Tyler Burroughs (1833-1913)
}} Businessman and Civil War veteran Major George Tyler Burroughs (1833–1913). George Tyler Burroughs, born in Warren MA, was an American Civil War veteran having served in the Union Army. After the war he moved to Chicago where he became a prosperous businessman, first in the distilling business. and then as owner of ABC battery company. He was a vigorous and dynamic man who took an active role in political, civic, and social affairs. The Burroughs family was welcomed into the upper class of Chicago society and lived on Washington Boulevard, a main Chicago thoroughfare. Biography George Tyler Burroughs was born on October 13, 1833, at Warren Massachusetts. His parents were Abner Tyler Burroughs and Mary Rice who had wed in 1827 and had gone on to bear six children: Mary Louise, Sarah Ann, George Tyler, Henry Rice, Abner Tyler, and Caroline Studley. He attended an academy at Monson, Massachusetts, conducted by the Reverend Charles Hammond. Later he went into business in Columbus City, Iowa, as a merchant. It was here that he courted school teacher Mary Evaline Zieger, daughter of Mary Coleman and Josiah Zieger. Civil War Service By the spring of 1861 George Burroughs had moved on to employment with the woolen department of Bliss, Wheelock and Kelley, a large New York importing house. He and Mary Evaline had planned a fall wedding and had selected their future home then being built in the suburbs. Their wedding plans, however, were suddenly postponed by the outbreak of the Civil War. Reading about Lincoln's call for volunteers in the morning paper, George walked to the nearest armoury and put his name on the enlistment list. He then informed his employers and resisted the many enticing offers they made to try to persuade him to stay with the company. He was sworn into the army on April 19, 1861, despite having limited vision in one eye -- the result of a childhood accident. He entered service in the Civil War as a private in Company "G" of the 71st New York Regiment, New York State Militia. The new recruit was in the hospital with dysentery when he learned that his company was marching to the front. He climbed out the window and caught up with his company -- he was reprimanded but was allowed to remain. In the advance on Manassas, June 16 to 21, he saw action at Sudley Springs and at the Battle of Bull Run. In the front rank of the Bull Run battle George felt a bullet pass through his blouse. It struck and killed the man behind him. After the disaster of Bull Run on July 21, the soldiers of the 71st, bewildered and in disorder, managed to reach Washington within the next two days. With no further assignment George returned to his position at Bliss, Wheelock and Kelley's. He was mustered out at New York City on July 31, 1861, but on December 16 reentered service with a commission as First Lieutenant, 43rd New York Volunteer Infantry, "Albany & Yates Rifles." He served as acting regimental quartermaster from December 1861 to September 1862. After various battle campaigns, he was detached from his regiment and assigned to duty as acting commissary of subsistence on the staff of General F. L. Vinton and then, with a commission from President Lincoln, was made captain and commissary of subsistence on February 19, 1863. He remained throughout the war and was present in numerous campaigns. On July 22, 1865 George Tyler Burroughs was honourably discharged from service with the title of brevet major. He had served four years and two months with the Union forces. His resignation had been tendered "to enable him to return to his family and to establish himself in business." More to Portland ME With Mary, his wife of two years, he soon left for Portland, Maine where he applied the skills he had learned as an army quartermaster to running a furniture business with two partners, John B. Hudson and H. B. Masters. Their business cards read: "George T. Burroughs & Co., Plain and Ornamental Furniture, Feather Beds, Mattresses &c., Lancaster Hall, Portland, Me." During their residence in Portland, two sons were born: George Tyler, Jr. in 1866 and Henry (Harry) Studley in 1868. References * Abner Burroughs 1805 Immigrant Ancestors Category:Union Army officers